Monday, April 16, 2012

Field Trip Plans – Saturday, April 21, 2012

We will meet at the Ritter Park Fountain at 8:30 AM on Saturday, April 21 and spend most of our day in and around Ritter Park.Our field trip should last until 3 PM on Saturday.Your lunch will be provided and you will receive a $100 stipend for the day.

In the morning, we will use the Samsung Galaxy Tab to take practice measures of selected trees to calculate board feet.Please make certain that you have downloaded the Clinometer app and that your Tab’s battery is fully charged.We will then take a walk around the park to study the trees in the area, their characteristics, uses and identification.You will use the Tab to take notes on the trees and to photograph the leaves and/or bark of the trees.You will be producing a sample field guide to trees for your students.

After lunch by the fountain from 11:30-12:00m we will review water quality assessment protocols with Pat.You will need to follow the guidelines that Pat posted earlier this month on how to update your LabQuest’s firmware.Using Pat’s explicit instructions, you should have no problems updating your LabQuest.Please bring all probes and sensors to the park with you.If you have the backpack from last year, you can load your LabQuest in that.Otherwise, as Pat suggests, you can use a canvas tote. Assessing water quality will require several location changes so we will need to drive up and down stream to complete the stream water quality assessment. You will want to make certain that you have the water quality spreadsheet template on your Tab that Pat showed you how to make at our last class meeting. This will allow you to enter water quality data and produce graphs easily.I would also suggest that you have the water quality protocol downloaded to your Tab so you will have easy access to instructions for using the Vernier sensors to determine water quality.

The field trip will take place rain or shine.Inclement weather is forecast for Saturday so please dress accordingly.

You will need to bring the following items to the park with you on Saturday morning:

·Fully charged Samsung Galaxy Tab with apps listed on the blog page

·Fully charged and updated Vernier LabQuest and all sensors

·Tape measure to determine tree circumference

·Tree identification guides

·Backpack or tote for gear

·Sturdy shoes since we will be doing a lot of walking on uneven terrain

·Rain jacket (if needed)

Following the field trip, you will be expected to make three blog postings:

1.Trees of Ritter Park (including photos and descriptions) that your students can use

2.Narrative and photos on the determination of board feet from a standing tree

3.Assessment of water quality on 4 Pole Creek including data tables from each tested site

We will look forward to seeing everyone at Ritter Park from 8:30 – 3:00 on Saturday, April 21, 2012.Get plenty of rest of Friday evening since we have a full day planned.There will be a good deal of walking and a lot of creative juices flowing.